Concerns Christians Should Have About Dungeons & Dragons
(C) 1995 Jeff Freeman

In the past couple of years, I've made a point of writing fundamentalist Christian groups asking for information about fantasy role-playing games (RPGs) like Dungeons & Dragons, from TSR, Inc. I'm not just "picking on" Fundamentalist Christian organizations. I've written to other religious and secular organizations, government agencies and individuals as well. Only fundamentalist Christians consistantly respond to my inquiry with something other than, "Sorry, we don't have any information about D&D."

The American Association of Suicidology, the Center for Disease Control, Health & Welfare Canada, the California Creative and Gifted Children's Program, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a handful of universities have studied the allegations that fantasy role-playing games cause suicide or murder. Not a single authoritative source has found any veracity to these claims at all.

When Dallas Egbert "ran away from it all" the mainstream media waded into the story in pack formation. His alleged drug use, reported homosexuality, to say nothing of the pressure that a 16- year old 'genius' in college must have faced, was overlooked entirely. The media seized on rumors that a mysterious game was being played in the steam tunnels beneath the university. Never mind that twenty years earlier, the rumors were that a mad-rapist lived in the steam tunnels. In fact, 'steam tunnel' folklore exists nearly everywhere there are steam tunnels.

Not until five years later did the family's private investigator, William Dear, break his silence and reveal that Dallas Egbert hadn't played much D&D at all, let alone any sort of live-action D&D in the steam tunnels.

By then the attack on role-playing games was well under way. Convinced that fantasy RPGs had something to do with Dallas' death - essentially promoting the delusion that "some boy killed himself while playing D&D in the steam tunnels" - Fundamentalist Christians began a photocopied-flyer war on gaming. These tracts and flyers typically made their point by quoting rules out of context and blurring the distinction between player and character with half-truths and outright lies. When the truth about Dallas Egbert came out, the anti-gamers had enough 'evidence' of RPG's evil to ignore it. Even if Dallas Egbert wasn't killed by D&D, they had plenty of 'proof' that it was a bad, dangerous game. The players themselves, not just the characters in the game, were worshipping pagan gods, summoning demons and casting magic spells.

Irving 'Bink' Pulling was reportedly a disturbed young man who'd taken a fancy to Hitler and had displayed 'Lycanthropic tendencies' according to Pat Pulling, his mother. He became depressed at school when he couldn't find a campaign manager to run for student council and wrote 'Life is a Joke' on the blackboard at school. Two weeks later he shot himself with his mother's pistol.

Instead of becoming a left-wing gun-control nut, Pat Pulling became a right-wing game-control nut. Refusing to shoulder any of the blame for not noticing Bink's problems, or for keeping a loaded pistol where the child could access it, she blamed D&D for the death of her son. Although none of the other kids involved in the creative & gifted program recalled such an event, Pat insisted that her son had been 'cursed' by his teacher in a game of D&D. She filed suit against the teacher, the principal and the school district only to have her suit tossed out.

Pat Pulling wasn't finished, however. She founded Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons and toured the country speaking to law enforcement officers, religious groups and any other audience willing to pay the fee to hear her speak. As she lacked any sort of credentials, she completed a two week course to earn her private investigators' license and wrote a book. Being a P.I. with a book entitled her to refer to herself, she felt, as an 'expert' with 'numerous awards and degrees'.

Pat Pulling claimed that every single suicide committed by a person who'd ever played D&D (and a few who hadn't), was a 'D&D related' suicide. The mainstream media assisted Pat's war on gaming by making special note whenever a gamer committed suicide. Other, often significant, details were glossed-over or ignored entirely in the rush to report "D&D-Player Commits Suicide".

So much hysteria was generated over the D&D-suicide delusion that serious investigators finally began doing their own studies. Also, the game manufacturer's association assigned Mike Stackpole to investigate the claims that role-playing games caused suicide.

Quickly enough, it was discovered that only a quarter of Pat Pulling's "Trophy List" was sufficiently documented to even verify that a death had occurred. Half of those suicides were refuted by the parents of the victims. All of the suicides had significant other factors that one had to ignore in order to blame D&D. One suicide was a fictional death that had occurred in a novel. More importantly, the "Trophy List", even counting every single death as a bona-fide D&D-suicide, revealed that gamers had a suicide rate some ten times below the national average.

Meanwhile Pat Pulling had teamed-up with Dr. Thomas Radecki. Although his license to practice psychiatry has since been suspended, at the time his credentials lent validity to the charges against role-playing games. Thomas Radecki also charged that cartoon violence caused kids to behave more violently, that the Bugs Bunny & Roadrunner Hour on Saturday morning cartoons was as violent as Friday the 13th, and that Disney's Alice in Wonderland would "definitely cause viewers to become more violent." Together, Thomas Radecki and Pat Pulling added D&D- related murders, kidnappings and robberies to the "Trophy List" and petitioned the Consumer Product Safety Commission to require warning labels on fantasy role-playing games. The CPSC investigated the issue, found there was no issue, and summarily dismissed the petition.

Their poorly-documented list of "D&D related murders" likewise indicated a murder rate below the national average, but again prompted studies. No study yet has revealed any sort of danger to playing fantasy role-playing games. Instead, researchers discovered that gamers as a group have fewer criminal tendencies than average, no psychological abnormalities, a slight increase in creativity among long-time players and a greater sense of self-worth.

Ultimately Pat Pulling had only one allegation remaining that anyone would listen to - and even then only fundamentalist Christian groups were willing to believe it. Fantasy role playing games, they asserted, were occult indoctrination tools that lured white suburban teens into horrific satanic cults. Furthermore, these cults were everywhere. The popular "fortress mentality" of certain religious groups - the belief that the world is a wholly corrupt, evil place that only their faith protects them from - latched onto this "evidence" of Satan's power. Proof that the world was in Satan's grasp could be found by demonizing every aspect of pop-culture. Anything popular among teens was satanic, therefore one had only to make note of how many satanic things were popular to validate the fortress mentality.

Any movie, book or game containing spell-casting characters, wizards, witches, demons and the like, was an "occult" indoctrination tool that 'glorified evil' and lured kids to devil worship. Ultimately, exceptions were made. For example, the movie The Ten Commandments contains spell-casting Pharaoh's magicians but is not satanic. J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, featuring Gandalf the Wizard fighting a demonesque "Balrog", is not satanic. C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, although fantasy, is not satanic. This Present Darkness, although populated with an entire cast of demons, is not satanic.

Fantasy role-playing games, on the other hand, are still satanic (or at least 'occultic') according to most of the fundamentalist organizations I've surveyed. For that matter, they still claim RPGs are causative factors in suicide and murder.

Game fans were quick to get their RPGs online. There are play- by-mail games and Multi-User Dungeons (essentially text adventure games that can be played by scores of people at the same time via internet). Online services are already working on the next wave of graphical online RPGs. Computer game software generated more revenue than movie box-office sales in 1994 and 20 to 25% of it consisted of computer RPGs.

Books based on RPG fantasy worlds have hit the New York Times bestseller list on numerous occasions. The Dragonlance Chronicles was the first and most recently Starless Night hit number-one. TSR, Inc. has announced that two movies based on D&D and a television animated series are in the works.

Clearly, role-playing games are huge. If they were luring kids into cults, one would expect a mighty lot of cults. A large number of cults, meanwhile, would leave a lot of evidence of cult-activity. What evidence is there?

The evidence suggests that most cults in North America are bible- believing fundamentalist sects that carry their members off into physical and psychological isolation. There is a sad irony in all this delusion. Pat Pulling warned police officers that gamers might commit suicide: Gamers have a below-average suicide rate while police officers have the highest of any profession.

Some Christian groups seize on the "games lure kids into cults" (among other things) as proof of the world's corruption: The fortress mentality is the first step in psychological alienation that cults must use in order to control their members.

What are the real concerns for Christians when it comes to fantasy role-playing games? Concerns are misdirected towards the games that should rightly be directed towards the claims.

Any claim that role-playing games are physically or psychologically dangerous is just flat wrong. It is a misconception or worse, a lie. The mainstream media created a delusion and certain small groups sold it, with considerable embellishment, to the fundamentalist community. The claim that fantasy games are dangerous alone demonstrates a willingness to ignore the truth and the evidence rather than admit to being wrong, duped or used. The sale of this claim in pamphlets and flyers is the sale of a lie, usually in Jesus' name.

Indeed, such claims damage the credibility of fundamentalist arguments on every issue. Clinging to the "fantasy games are evil" argument is akin to claiming that the world is flat, because Christians used to believe the world was flat, all evidence to the contrary ignored. It makes it difficult to be taken seriously on other rather more significant issues such as sex-education, abortion, school-voucher programs or prayer in school. Why believe anything fundamentalists have to say about any of those issues when they clearly ignore the truth about fantasy games in favor of paranoid delusions?

The claim that role-playing games are occultic (among other such claims) is founded in ignorance and perpetuated either to validate the fortress mentality or to take advantage of it (e.g. to solicit donations). Real danger of cult involvement springs from world-views that encourage psychological isolation. Religious leaders that blur the distinction between mythology and occultism are being disingenuous. Theologians that further claim no distinction between occult involvement and fantasy entertainment often present a clear danger to those who believe them.

Finally, the more recent attempts to differentiate between "good" fantasy entertainment and "bad" fantasy entertainment is complicated by the blanket condemnation of role-playing games. This Present Darkness is a novel describing spiritual warfare. It is ripe with demonic characters, but clearly it is a Christian novel promoting fundamentalism.

Some actors in The Ten Commandments, among other Bible-films, play the role of bad-guys. They (pretend to) cast magic spells, worship pagan gods and otherwise do all of the things that players are allegedly doing in fantasy games. Yet The Ten Commandments is never denounced as a "lure" that entices youngsters to join satanic cults.

C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien wrote fantasy novels that have been charged right along with RPGs for their "supernatural" content. More recently all but the most extreme of extremists have accepted that these are "good fantasy" works by celebrated Christian authors.

Clearly fantasy, as a genre, can be good. Perhaps, like historical fiction, western romance, contemporary fiction or any other genre, it can even be indifferent.

In fantasy role-playing games the referee, like the author of a novel, tells a story. In a novel, the author would be deciding the actions of every character, good and bad. In role-playing games, the referee is deciding the actions of every supporting character, but the other players are deciding the actions of the main characters. As the game is played a story unfolds. The players don't know what will happen because they are only deciding the main characters' actions. The referee doesn't know what will happen because the main characters' actions are being decided by the other players.

Telling (even fantasy) stories is not an un-Christian thing to do. Playing board-games is not an un-Christian thing to do. Playing something called a 'role-playing game' that combines elements of both is not an un-Christian thing to do either.

Lying, however, isn't Christian at all.